生活 / Life
Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long does it receive messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.
An individual human existence should be like a river—small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, it becomes merged in the sea, and painlessly loses its individual being.
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
【助读词汇】
◇unfailing adj. 无穷的，无尽的
◇passionately adv. 热情地，热切地，强烈地
◇boulder n. 巨砾，圆石
◇temperamental adj. 性情的，易激动的
◇predominance n. 优势，主导地位，优势地位
◇wrinkle n. 皱纹 v.使皱
【参考译文】
生活
无论是60岁还是16岁，每人个的内心都会受到外面世界的诱惑，都会有孩子般的探知欲，都会享受人生游戏的欢乐。在你我的心底，有一座无线电台，它能在多长时间里接收到人间万物传递来的美好、希望、欢乐、鼓舞和力量的信息，你就会年轻多长时间。
每个人的生命应当像河流，开始是涓涓细流，受两岸的限制而十分狭窄，然后奔腾咆哮，翻过危岩，飞越瀑布，河面渐渐开阔，河岸也随之向两边隐去，最后水流平缓，淼淼无际，汇入大海之中，人就这样毫无痛苦地消失了。
青春意味着战胜懦弱的那股大丈夫气概和摒弃安逸的那种冒险精神。往往一个60岁的老者比一个20岁的青年更多一点这种劲头。人老不仅仅是岁月流逝所致，更主要的是不思进取的结果。
岁月可以在皮肤上留下印记，而热情之火的熄灭则在心灵上刻下皱纹。烦恼、恐惧、缺乏自信会使人的人的心灵变得懦弱，并将人的精神化为灰烬!
【人生启迪】
我们每个人的生命都只有一次，今天过去了就永远不会再回来，我们不是上帝，不会知道下一秒将会发生什么事情，但是只要我们把握好现在的每一分每一秒，我们才不会在年老的时候感叹自己逝去的青春和生命。